


Travelers

by erbine99



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Alternate Universe, Claudia is an AI (dare I say she's..... CLAUD.ai), F/F, IN SPACE, angst and pain
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-07-20 11:49:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16136621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erbine99/pseuds/erbine99
Summary: Myka is the pilot of the Endless Wonder - a spaceship bound for New Earth. She's the only human awake on the ship, although there are four hundred and twelve people in suspended animation as passengers. Unbeknownst to Myka, Helena G Wells' pod has been malfunctioning ever since she came on board - she's been awake but unable to move this whole time. When her pod finally breaks down completely, Myka saves her.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at a multichapter Bering and Wells fic. Obviously, it had to be angsty, and it had to be IN SPACE.

“Claudia, are we on course?” I asked, for what felt like the six millionth time. 

“You know that isn’t my name.” the computer replied. 

“Way to dodge the question, CLAUD.ai. I happen to know you like that name.” I said. Laughter, only the slightest bit unnatural, resounded over the intercom. 

“Touché Myka. Yes, we’re still on course. Just like we were the last five hundred and forty-three days. You know I’d tell you if there was a problem, right? I’ve got this covered.”

“And you know I just like asking.” I stood up from my seat at the helm to take my three o'clock walk past the suspended animation pods. 

Every day, I inspect the pods. More out of a need to do something than any danger to the passengers - space is cold and lonely, and routine can push back the tedium. There are four hundred and eleven passengers on the ship - and one backup pilot. Pete Lattimer and I went to the academy together. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of pressing the little red button on the center of his tomblike pod, beginning the reviving process. The clear purple goo would drain from the pod, and I’d have another friend in the cold of space. He might drive me a little crazy at times and eat like a horse, but Pete was good company. However, he was only to be woken in case of emergency. 

Sometimes I wonder who the people in the suspended animation pods are. What led them to uproot themselves from their lives on earth. What they feel right before they fall past consciousness into suspended animation. I’ve never done it myself - a pilot doesn’t have the privilege of putting their life on pause for the journey to New Earth. 

I looked down at the one hundred ninety-eighth pod. Helena G. Wells. The emergency light was red and furiously blinking, but that wasn’t what startled me. It was the pair of open eyes inside the pod, wide with fear, and staring straight at me. Immediately, I pressed the little red button on the pod. Slowly - too damn slowly - the purple goo began to drain from the pod. The woman’s panicked eyes followed me, but the rest of her did not move. In a panic, I pulled at the face of the pod, trying to open it. A few moments later, it opened on its own, and I heard the woman - Helena, was it? - take a shuddering breath. She remained mostly unmoving, except for her eyes and the rise and fall of her chest. Helena was wearing the standard outfit for suspended animation - a thin hospital gown that may have started out white but had become a pale purple due to the goo. 

“You’re going to be alright,” I said. I had no idea if it was true but surely she needed some kind of reassuring. The academy had not prepared me for this. Pods were not supposed to fail. The emergency light usually blinked for minor mishaps - like when the goo needed to be changed (once about every six months). She stared back at me and opened her mouth. A small sound, almost a squeak came out. The woman furrowed her brow. Goo dripped from her long black hair. She opened her mouth again.

“I am not alright.” she haltingly half-whispered in a British accent. It seemed like every word cost her a great deal of energy. She reached a shaking, slimy hand out toward me, and I grabbed it. For a moment she simply held my hand. She was cool to the touch. Then she began to stand up, a long and unsteady process where I was used for balance.

“I’m going to take you to the med bay,” I said, trying to sound official and in control. Helena nodded, attempted to take a step, and promptly began to fall to the floor. I caught her, and she stood back up, tears in her eyes. “Lean on me, Helena,” I suggested. For a moment she half-smiled and I realized that even miserable and covered in goo, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She put her arm over my shoulder and we slowly hobbled out of the suspended animation wing. 

By the time we came to the med bay, she was losing energy fast. I practically carried her through the door and onto the cot. 

“Claudia - what went wrong?” I asked. A panel on the wall of the med bay lit up, and there was CLAUD.ai’s computer-generated face. Helena, who had been fighting sleep, looked up, suddenly wide awake. 

“We’ve got a little bit of an error, Myka. Very small, nothing to worry about. I’ve isolated it and it shouldn’t affect anything else. Working on correcting it. Apparently, the readings I’ve been getting from pod one ninety-eight have been completely off for the past year and a half.” 

“That hardly sounds like a ‘little bit’ of an error. It rather sounds like a very big one.” said Helena in a low voice.

“I have to agree with Helena here,” I replied. CLAUD.ai frowned. 

“This was human error - not my fault. Someone frakked up - messed up the whole suspended animation process and screwed up the data input cable so it fed me the wrong info. She’s lucky she’s not dead.”

A look of fury was on Helena’s face. “No, instead I simply remained awake and paralyzed for a year and a half. How lucky for me.” I inhaled sharply, imagining it. There could not be anything more horrible. I was gripped with the need to help, to do something, anything. I pulled a blanket down off a shelf, unfolded it and lay it over Helena. She gave me another one of those sad half-smiles but relaxed a little bit.

“Claudia, perform a vital scan of Helena,” I ordered. For a minute, CLAUD.ai was silent. 

“She’s in no immediate physical danger,” Claudia reported. “Due to the improper suspended animation process, her muscles have atrophied somewhat. She’ll be exhausted for a while. Other than that she’s in incredibly good condition for someone who’s been through what she has.” 

“I feel as if I’m in anything but ‘incredibly good condition’,” said Helena. I placed a hand on her shoulder, and she leaned her head towards it. She felt warmer now.

“I swear, things will only get better from here,” I told her. She gave me a full smile this time, but it didn’t reach her eyes. 

“I hope that’s true,” she replied. “Myka - that is your name, isn’t it? You’ve been so kind to me today that I hope I can ask you one more favor. Stay here tonight. I don’t think I could bear to be alone anymore.” 

“I wouldn’t think of leaving you,” I replied, giving her shoulder a squeeze. The woman shut her eyes, and I turned off the lights and sat down. CLAUD.ai’s screen turned off without my help. 

Helena slept soundly that night - probably more out of exhaustion than anything else, but I hardly even tried. I was too busy thinking about how I wanted to protect this woman from any more hardship.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY, so I stayed up half the night writing this because Myka and HG wouldn't let me sleep. But the result was this, which is both gay and angsty (I promise the purpose of this story is not to make HG cry. It is absolutely the opposite and it is going to get better).

Despite having fallen asleep in the afternoon, Helena slept soundly into the late morning. My stomach betrayed me and complained loudly several times, but I wouldn’t have woken her up for the world. And of course, I didn’t even think of leaving her to go get my breakfast. 

 

In the early hours of the morning, I busied myself by reading one of the many books in CLAUD.ai’s extensive database. I had almost laughed when I opened up the file of the book I had been reading and saw the name H.G. Wells blinking back at me. By some strange stroke of luck, I was in the middle of reading  _ The Sleeper Awakes _ , a book about a man who wakes up from a two-hundred and three-year coma only to find that he has become the richest man in the world.

 

Now I had met an H.G Wells of my own - one who had experienced her own sort of coma. What would the Victorian writer think of my situation? I suppose my life would be like something out of science fiction to him.

 

After spending a little time in a two thousand one hundred entirely different from mine, I came to the end of the book, and my eyes wandered back to the H.G. Wells of my time. While my concentration had been elsewhere, she had woken up. She was watching me. 

 

“You didn’t sleep.,” she said, a statement and not a question.

“No, I didn’t,” I replied. I had no excuses for her. 

 

“What have you been reading?” she asked. I stifled a laugh. 

 

“You’re not going to believe this, but I was reading H.G. Wells - and I started before you came here.” Helena smiled, threw back her head and laughed richly. 

 

“He’s a relation, you know. Several generations back on my father’s side. We’re old English blood. Which book of his was it?”

 

“ _ The Sleeper Awakes _ .” Helena took a deep breath and rolled her eyes. 

 

“Coincidences on coincidences. Not my favorite of his works though. I’ve always been fond of  _ The Time Machine _ .” 

 

“You think the man’s first work is his best?” I asked. 

 

“Perhaps not his finest -  _ The War of the Worlds _ may hold that title, or even  _ Tono-Bungay _ , which was Wells’ own favorite of his works. But  _ The Time Machine  _ has always been my favorite.”

 

“I’ve always been a  _ The Island of Doctor Moreau _ kind of woman.” My father had read it to me when I was a little girl, one of his few acts of actual honest-to-god parenting. 

 

“Would you happen to know what time it is?” Helena asked. Suddenly CLAUD.ai lit up on the wall. 

 

“It is eleven thirty-five pm, and you’ve both missed breakfast, not to mention dinner. If you two are done with the literary nerding, now would be a good time to go eat,” said Claudia. 

 

“I am rather peckish,” replied Helena. She stretched out on the cot. She began moving to try to stand up and I was immediately at her side. 

  
“Probably best not to try walking on your own yet.” She frowned at me petulantly, but put her arm around me again, steadying herself as she stood up. Her hair was still all gelled together from the goo. “Honestly Helena - I think maybe you need a shower first.” For a moment, she looked terrified, but then her face was a calm mask.

 

“I’m hungry Myka. Can’t it wait?” 

 

“The shower is right next to the kitchen - it wouldn’t take too long. I don’t know how you slept last night, you can’t be comfortable like that.” She murmured something in agreement, and we began to walk, faster than last time but still quite slow. By the time we reached the bathroom, Helena had been silent for a good while. 

“I suppose I should do this then,” she said, reaching out to grip the wall tightly. She shrugged her way out of my arms and took a step toward the shower. Then she promptly fell over again. “Myka,” she said through gritted teeth - “I don’t think I can do this alone.” Oh - well then. 

 

I offered her my hand again, and in a moment she was standing, staring at me with big brown eyes. Wordlessly, she began to remove her hospital gown, which was stuck to her in places. I averted my eyes, and she let out a tiny chuckle, though it sounded thin. 

 

“Honestly Myka, if you’re going to help me bathe you can’t do it without looking at me. I truly don’t mind.” 

My eyes flicked down and I saw her. As messy as she was in that moment, her hair all gelled together, she was terrible, painfully beautiful. She also seemed so, so small and fragile, though I doubt she would have liked to hear me say it. Helena stepped into the shower and I walked in with her, clothes and all. 

 

I turned the water on and Helena extricated herself from my arms, bracing herself on the walls. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. 

 

I grabbed the soap and suppressed a gulp. This was simple. Just… remove the goo - residue. Helena opened her eyes and turned them on me. The woman was smirking. 

 

“Do I make you nervous, darling?” she asked. I felt my face go red. I shook my head and began to actually use the soap, distracting my brain by naming all thirty-seven of Shakespeare’s plays in alphabetical order. When I finished, ending with  _ The Winter’s Tale _ , I realized that she was crying. 

 

She looked at me again, and suddenly her arms were around me and her body was wracked with sobs. I put the soap down and held her as tightly as I could, and slowly the crying stopped. Helena pulled away from me and began to grip the wall once more. She turned to face the wall avoiding my eyes, and I washed her hair in silence. When I was done, I turned off the water, and we stepped out of the shower together. 

  
I helped HG with a towel, made sure she was standing solidly and walked to the other side of the room to grab my bathrobe. Then, I ducked into the linen closet and pulled out Pete’s. It would be big on me, but my clothes were soaking wet. Once H.G was warm in my red robe, I found the courage necessary to shed my clothes and put on Pete’s blue robe. It would have been unfair to ask for privacy when Helena could have none. 

  
“Ready to eat?” I asked Helena. She nodded, still quiet, and I walked her out of the bathroom and into the corridor. She met my eyes for the first time since she had cried. 

 

“Thank you, Myka,” she said. She leaned her head on my arm as we made our way to the kitchen. I wanted to ask her if she was okay, but I knew that it was a stupid question, so I kept my mouth shut. Of course, she wasn’t okay. She had just spent a year and a half paralyzed, in a pod full of purple goo. Would anyone be okay after that? Helena Wells was doing pretty damn well considering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Sleeper Awakes is a very real book, and I've always wondered if it partially inspired Warehouse 13's plotline for HG. (It's also a super weird book about FUTURE SOCIALISM and totally not my favorite HG Wells book, but hey).


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know I had a day off today, but somehow it happened, so y'all get another chapter. Yes, Myka is in the SPACE FORCE because I thought it was funny.

Helena ate ravenously, devouring the bland, protein-rich glop I couldn’t quite bring myself to call food as if it were world-class cuisine. I salted my own glop liberally and took small bites. 

“So - what led you to leave Earth behind?” I asked. She put down her spoon, and a shadow passed over her face. 

“I needed a change,” she said. “Putting a few galaxies distance between myself and Earth seemed like a good idea.” Helena pushed her bowl away, appetite lost. With effort, she gave a tight smile. “What lead you to become a pilot?”

“I got a full ride scholarship to Space Force Academy. It was the easiest way to get away from home.” I replied. Obviously, she didn’t want to talk about what brought her here. I knew almost nothing about this woman.

“And home needed getting away from?” She raised one perfect eyebrow. 

“My father and I never got along. I have a sister. Just a sister, no brothers. And my father owns a bookshop - he calls it Bering and Sons. He always wanted me to be someone else.” I looked down, prodded the glop with my spoon and then gave up on it. “I suppose I should say my father owned a bookshop. Most everyone I knew is dead. Near-lightspeed travel will do that to you.” Helena reached out her hand and held mine in it for a moment, giving it a tight squeeze. 

“All of us on this ship signed up to travel to an unknown future, to make a new life. It was never going to be easy. The only thing we can do is miss those we left behind.” she said. Tears were forming in her eyes again. “When my daughter Christina was diagnosed with Leukemia, we were in the midst of filling out the paperwork to join the New Earth colony. When the doctors were unable to save her, she made me promise to come alone.” I squeezed her hand back. Somehow it fit that Helena was a mother. Hearing about her pain made mine seem so small and insignificant. 

“You’ve been through so much. I swear, things are going to get better.” I would make them better if I had to. 

I took our bowls and washed them in the sink. 

“You keep saying that. I almost find myself believing you,” she replied. 

“I’m going to take you to my room - it’s much more comfortable than the med bay.” She stood up, a little steadier than before, and we made our slow way through the halls.

When we got to my small room, Helena’s eyes were immediately drawn to the tiny bookshelf by the bed.

“I applaud your good taste, Myka - you own my books. My pseudonym is Charles Wells.” 

“I’m going to have to process this. You wrote Fly Me To Europa and the Tenth Cube series?” Helena smiled. 

“Guilty as charged,” she replied. I helped her over to my bed, where she stretched out like a cat. I sat next to her. 

“Why do you write under a male name?” I asked. 

“I actually released my first book under the pen-name Emily Lake. Decent reviews - terrible sales. When I tried using a male name - we couldn’t keep them in stores. Science fiction readers can be terribly sexist, even in two thousand one hundred.” She laughed. “You know, they praise me for being a man who writes believable women?” Helena pulled my blankets up over herself.  
“Forgive me Myka, I’m still exhausted. I fear I may fall asleep right now.” 

“Please, do. Honestly, I may too.” I hadn’t slept last night and seeing her so cozy was making me yearn for sleep. She closed her eyes, and I lay down as well.

Sleep. In this bed. Next to this woman. Clearly, my sleep-addled brain hadn’t thought this through, but to move would be to disturb her, and that would be unforgivable. Helena snored softly, and she rolled over, pressing herself against my side, hooking an arm around me. 

To simply be touched after so long with no human company was transcendent, but what would Helena think when she woke up? This was a woman I was meant to help, not take advantage of. 

Against my will, my body relaxed, and I fell asleep. When I awoke, Helena was awake, and we were no longer so close. I must admit it felt like a loss. The moment my eyes opened up, I saw her looking at me, an expression I couldn’t quite name on her face. 

“You must forgive me, Myka. I fear I lose all propriety in my sleep.” she said. 

“I really didn’t mind,” I replied, blushing. “But if you like, I can sleep in Pete’s room tonight.” She looked down. 

“I would rather not be alone.”

“Then you’re welcome here, for as long as you like,” I said. Helena smiled at me. 

“It’s not as if I can really leave for six months. So I suppose I HAVE to enjoy your company for the time being.” 

On the wall in front of me, CLAUD.ai’s face appeared. 

“While this is sickeningly sweet, I’m gonna need Myka to head to the suspended animation pods.”

“Please tell me there are no more malfunctions,” I begged.

“It’s all good - but a few of the pods need their goo replaced. You know the drill.” Claudia said. Her face disappeared from the wall.

“Helena, are you going to be okay if I leave you here?” I asked. She nodded. 

“You’ve got a job to do. I’m not made of glass, I won’t break if you leave me.” Helena said. At that moment, in the blankets of my bed, Helena did look very fragile indeed. But what had to be done had to be done. I stood up from the bed and walked over to the door. 

“I’ll be back soon. If you have any problems, tell Claudia, and she’ll get me, okay?” Helena rolled her eyes.

“Get to work, Myka,” Helena said, making a shooing gesture. I walked out the door and headed for the suspended animation pods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Travel at near light speeds totally WOULD mess with time. Little time passes for you, lots of time passes for everyone outside the ship, causing all my friends are dead syndrome.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this one is shorter - sorry. BUT AT LEAST I'M BACK.

On my way back from changing the goo in the pods, CLAUD.ai appeared before me on the wall. 

“We have a situation, Myka - I’ve had a communication from Earth.” The image of General Irene Frederic, the head of the colonization project, appeared next to Claudia on the wall. General Frederic appeared scarcely to have aged a day since I had last seen her. I had heard whispers about the government’s secret anti-aging technology, but this was the first evidence I had seen. 

“Recently, we lost contact with seven out of ten of the colony ships. Before we lost communications to the Nikola Tesla, they relayed to us that their artificial intelligence, Josh.ai, was acting strangely. Turn off your AI immediately and pilot the ship manually. You are authorized to wake your co-pilot.” Then, the image of General Frederic disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. 

“Claudia. Tell me that nothing is wrong.” 

“You have your orders, Pilot. Shut me down. If there’s any chance I’m going to make something bad happen to the four hundred and fourteen people on this ship, to you, I’m not going to be the one to take it. Turn things back on when we get there, and we can laugh about this.” 

I closed my eyes. Claudia had been my only friend for the past year and a half. “Claud.ai commence shutdown procedure.” I said, trying to hold back from crying. 

“Confirm shutdown?” asked Claudia. She held her head high, but her eyes looked so scared. 

“Confirm.” Claud.ai faded from the wall. 

\------

I stood in front of Pete’s pod. I had thought I’d be doing this in six months when we landed. That he would joke about not getting to fly the ship at all. As happy as I would be to see him, this would hardly be a joyous reunion. We had business to attend to. 

I pressed the little red button on his pod and began the process of reviving Pete. Part of me worried about leaving Helena alone for so long by herself - but without CLAUD.ai, this ship needed Pete. There were no surprises this time. Pete had been properly put in suspended animation. The goo drained from his pod as it was supposed to, and the pod opened up. Pete, clad only in a hospital gown, emerged from the pod with a smile on his face.

“We’re there already Mykes? Nice job!” he said. Then he noticed my frown. “Definitely not there then.” 

“We’re six months away and CLAUD.ai has been compromised. I just shut her down, Pete.” 

“I would offer you a hug, but I’m covered in goo.” said Pete.

“You’re also half-naked.”

“Women LOVE that.”

“Go get a shower, Pete. I’m going to go see to one of our passengers - there was an incident and she was improperly put in stasis. She’s awake now.”  
\-----------

When I came back to my room, Helena was waiting in bed right where I’d left her. 

“I was wondering where you’d gone.”

“Helena, you should know, we’re in danger.” 

“We’re hurtling through space at the speed of light toward a destination few have been to before. Of course we’re in danger.”

“Immediate danger. Seven out of ten of the colony ships have gone out of contact with Earth. Claudia is gone. I shut her down. I was told she was compromised. So now Pete and I have to fly this thing ourselves.” Helena closed her eyes and breathed in for a moment. 

I have complete confidence in you, Myka.” she said. “Though I’m sorry to see Claudia go.” I sat down next to her on the bed.

“I am too.” I said, my voice cracking. She wrapped me up in a hug. 

“We are going to make it to New Earth.” she whispered in my ear.


End file.
